FairWild and CITES
The FairWild Standard is also proving instrumental for the implementation of existing regulatory frameworks provided by National Resource Management Systems as well as by International Conventions such as CITES.
Countries exporting plant and animal species listed in Appendix II of CITES are required to demonstrate the levels of export are not detrimental to the survival of the species concerned.
This is achieved through the compilation and issuing of a so-called Non-Detriment Finding (NDF) by the CITES Scientific Authority of the country concerned.
Currently there is little detailed technical guidance on how to compile NDFs or how to make them comparable between different countries. CITES is currently preparing such guidance through its Animals and Plants Committees.
The FairWild Standard has been useful in this process. Members and partners of the FairWild Foundation have ensured that the relevant ecological criteria (formerly the ISSC-MAP Standard) of the FairWild Standard were considered at International CITES expert meetings in Mexico and elsewhere and a background paper on Supporting the Implementation of ISSC-MAP in CITES through the Non-Detriment-Finding-Process (PDF, 700 KB) prepared.
The general outcome of the Mexico meeting was presented in a formal document (Doc 16.2, PDF, 330 KB) to the 15th Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP15) in March 2010, with a specific reference to ISSC-MAP in paragraph 6.
The guidance docs from the Mexico expert meetings were used by the CITES Plants Committee to form the basis of papers on medicinal plants, agarwood and timber. All elements relevant to CITES in ISSC-MAP were used in the resultant CoP15 document (Doc 16.3, PDF, 450 KB).
The ISSC-MAP Standard is also referenced in another CoP15 document (Doc 17, PDF, 44 KB), which states: "the aim of ISSC-MAP is to bridge the gap between existing broad conservation guidelines and management plans developed for specific local conditions."
The implementation of an adaptive management scheme based on regular monitoring is an important consideration in the ongoing NDF evaluation process discussion. FairWild management planning guidance can also provide guidance to this.
Lesotho: CITES NDF based on FairWild Standard
TRAFFIC has field tested how the FairWild Standard could guide the elaboration of a NDF for Pelargonium sidoides in Lesotho and South Africa as part of the international project "Saving Plants that Save Lives and Livelihoods", funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and co-ordinated by TRAFFIC and WWF Germany.
Pelargonium sidoides is currently not listed in CITES, but populations are under severe pressure due to land conversion and harvesting.
The FairWild Standard proved to be a comprehensive and useful tool to prepare an NDF in Lesotho, and the results were presented (PDF, 440 KB) at a CITES NDF workshop.
FairWild and the CBD
FairWild has clear links to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)'s core aim of conservation of biological resources, including their sustainable use and fair sharing of benefits resulting from such use.
The FairWild Standard provides both public and private sectors with a means to achieve these CBD objectives within operations focusing on wild plant collection.
The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC)
FairWild is an excellent tool to achieve several targets of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, which was adopted in 2002 by the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The Strategy issues of sustainable use and benefit-sharing, and aims to contribute to poverty alleviation and sustainable development through inclusion of its targets into government policy, as national biodiversity strategies or targeted national plant conservation strategies and into private sector guidelines.
The comprehensiveness of the FairWild Standard and the flexibility in its implementation make the FairWild Foundation an ideal partner for governments, companies, NGOs and community-based plant sourcing operations for working towards fulfillment of the GSPC targets, namely:
• Target 3: Development of models with protocols for plant conservation and sustainable use, based on research and practical experience.
• Target 11: No species of wild flora endangered by international trade
• Target 12: 30% of plant-based products derived from sources that are sustainably managed
• Target 13: The decline of plant resources, and associated indigenous and local knowledge, innovations and practices that support sustainable livelihoods, local food security and health care, halted.
ISSC-MAP, whose criteria form the ecological part of the FairWild Standard, is cited as a tool for implementing specific GSPC targets in the Plant Conservation Report (PDF, 2.6 MB) that was presented at CBD CoP 9.
This report was developed by the CBD Secretariat in collaboration with the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation (GPPC) and other relevant organizations and stakeholders. The report presented an in-depth review of progress in implementing the GSPC.
The European Plant Conservation Strategy (EPCS)
The targets of the European Plant Conservation Strategy (EPCS) translate the internationally accepted Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) into a European context.
The EPCS provides individuals, institutions, organisations and governments across Europe with a unique opportunity to take action to secure the future of wild plants and fungi and the ecosystem services and livelihoods that depend upon them.
ISSC-MAP, the ecological module of the FairWild Standard, is named in the EPCS document (PDF, 1.5 MB) as a valuable instrument contributing to achieve Objective 3: Using plant diversity sustainably, specifically targets 11 (No species of wild flora endangered by international trade) and 12 (30% of plant-based products derived from sources that are sustainably managed).
Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) requirements
The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources is one of the CBD’s three objectives. Parties to the CBD recognize that access to these resources must be subject to Prior Informed Consent (PIC) and has to be based on Mutually Agreed Terms (MAT), including fair and equitable sharing of any resulting benefits. The CBD also requires that access to related Traditional Knowledge (TK) occurs with the approval of the holders of that knowledge, who must also participate equitably in the resulting benefits.
However, awareness of ABS remains limited at the community, government, civil society and private sector levels. Furthermore, policies that help in developing and implementing ABS remain a significant challenge.
The FairWild Standard includes ABS elements as important constituents of sustainable use practices.
Lessons learnt from a FairWild implementation project in the Brazilian Amazon (see factsheet, PDF, 1.5 MB) were presented at a Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting on finalizing the text of an International Regime (IR) on ABS in Colombia in April 2010. The project promotes a better comprehension of and guidance on implications of the use of biological resources and associated TK, aiming to establish agreements on conservation and benefit sharing with different partners, including the private sector.
It was hoped a final agreement on the ABS International Regime would be signed-off in Nagoya, Japan, in October 2010 at the 10th Conference of the Parties to CBD.
More information (in Spanish)